VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Pow and Silly Fella look like the main players in a first-level allowance race that will serve as Saturday’s feature at Hastings. The 1 1/16-mile race goes as race 6 on the seven-race card.
On Monday, a total of 10 races, including seven stakes restricted to B.C.-breds, have been scheduled for B.C. Cup Day. Since its inception in 1995, B.C. Cup Day has become the biggest day at Hastings in terms of attendance and handle.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Mark Casse sent out his meet-leading seventh stakes winner here Wednesday evening as Queen Street Beach captured the $125,000 Deputy Minister for Ontario-sired 3-year-olds.
Queen Street Beach, a homebred who races for Eugene Melnyk, was running his record to 3 for 3 after beginning his career June 24.
“I think he’s a nice horse,” Casse said. “I was a little concerned. He puts a lot into his races, and it was his third race in five weeks. I think he’ll need a little break after this race.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Chad Brown, whose Zagora figures to be among the favorites in Saturday’s $500,000 Diana, may have summed up the Grade 1 race for fillies and mares best when he said, “It’s an evenly matched field. It’s going to take some racing luck to win. You need to work out a trip.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Summers at Ellis Park are taking Jon Court back to the future. Court is the only jockey to win five straight riding titles at Ellis (1998-2002), and having added another title in 2009, he is threatening to tie the late Leroy Tauzin for a record seventh.
Court rode six winners last weekend at the Henderson, Ky., track, including a 9-1 upset aboard Abuela in the Ellis Park Turf Stakes and a three-win day Sunday. With 12 of 31 days complete, Court trailed Corey Lanerie by a 13-12 count atop the Ellis standings.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Trainer Tom Bush has withdrawn Get Stormy from consideration for Sunday’s Grade 2 Fourstardave at Saratoga. Get Stormy, a two-time Grade 1 winner, would have been the starting highweight under 122 pounds and likely co-choice with Sidney’s Candy in the turf fixture.
“He has a little insult on the outer edge of his right front tendon,” Bush said late Thursday morning. “I don’t know for sure yet what the issue is, it might be nothing, but we have to look at it and be careful so I’m not going to enter him in the race.”
I Am Awesome, upset winner of the one-mile Wheat City in his last start on July 6, will be looking to confirm that form in Saturday’s $25,000 R.J. Speers at Assiniboia Downs.
The R.J. Speers, a 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-olds and upward, will be the first of five stakes run at Assiniboia over the long weekend with Monday’s $75,000 Manitoba Derby the undisputed highlight.
The top race for older horses features a World Champion. The leading race for older females includes the winner of a seven-figure futurity. The evening’s derby is wide open and the corresponding futurity features a pair of juveniles who ran career-best races in recent time trials.
The California Breeders’ Champion Night for statebred Quarter Horses at Los Alamitos on Saturday features notable runners in four of the nine stakes on the 13-race program.
Hastings invader Inhisglory figures to be a short price to win the $50,000 Count Lathum at Northlands Park Saturday. The 1 1/16-mile feature drew five horses and will serve as the final local prep for the Grade 3, $300,000 Canadian Derby at Northlands Aug. 20.
Also on the 10-race card is the $50,000 Canadian Juvenile. Dougs Buddy and No Big Deal appear to be the main players in the six-furlong sprint, which drew six horses.
Ann’s Smart Dancer has won 3 of 4 starts while racing almost exclusively against fellow 3-year-old fillies. Project Rose boasts a 6-for-9 record running on synthetic surfaces, but has never raced on dirt.
Considering that Saturday’s $75,000 Power by Far for Pennsylvania-breds will be contested at six furlongs on Parx Racing’s main track and five of the six fillies and mares are 4-years-old and up, both Ann’s Smart Dancer and Project Rose have something to prove, despite their otherwise impressive credentials.
Out of Goodbyes is out of excuses as last year’s top 3-year-old Massachusetts-bred filly tries to break a losing streak in Saturday’s $50,000 Isadorable Stakes at Suffolk Downs.
By winning both the Louise Kimball Stakes and the African Prince Stakes against males, Out of Goodbyes made it clear she was the best statebred in her class in 2010. In three starts this season, however, success has been harder to come by.
